Weeks of my life have been consumed with buses. When I wasn't on a bus, I was waiting for a bus, running for a bus or changing buses.
The journey to work was generally fine, although my main bus seems prone to breakdowns - in the space of a week, I was on a bus that broke down, then I was the bus following a bus that broke down that had to pick up the stray passengers.
The bus journey can be rather pleasant on a morning. Apparently it takes you right past Tommy Steele's house, except I'm not entirely sure which one it is. There are some beautiful properties along the route, although their appeal is somewhat marred when you think about how many people must gawp into their gardens each day from the top deck of the bus.
The return journey however is a more stressful affair as no bus seems to travel without a handful of teenagers discussing how much alcohol they've recently drank. The young people of my new worktown are an interesting breed - the girls are like a race of superbeings, none of them over a size 6 or under 5ft10, all with waist-length toussled hair. None of the adults look like this so presumably they all either leave the town at 20 or decline dramatically (perhaps as a result of all that vodka drinking).
Anyway I was tired of the traffic and teenagers, so I've made a change to avoid the bus. I've not moved house or quit the job (although both thoughts have occurred to me). No, I've taken the rather less radical step of being a travelcard that allows me to take the train home (or more accurately two trains and a bus, as opposed to the two buses). My quality of life has improved although I'm sticking with the morning buses.
*the number of the bus has been changed to protect the innocent
5 comments:
For me, the most prized aspect of my job is that I get to work from home 90% of the time. My morning commute consists of a trip from my bedroom to the kitchen for coffee, then back up the stairs to my office. And that's it. The end of day commute is similar. Once a month there's the random trip to Toronto or NYC or California, and maybe a meeting in the office in Dallas. Other than that, I throw on my sweats, plug into the internet and go at it from my home office.
It's absolutely the best.
I love my half-hour bus ride to and from work... I generally use it to catch up on all the reading I otherwise wouldn't get around to doing...bleeds off the stress at the end of the day too...
People say to me often "I wish you people who planned the bus services actually used them" and they're quite surprised when I tell them "we do" ... there are four in our department and we all use the buses... some of us (not me!) drive them sometimes too...
I still like buses.
Hello, I thought you should know...
I'm back blogging!
x
M - working from home would certainly improve my quality of life, but I don't see it happening anytime soon, although there are plenty of things I could do remotely.
Cogi and Roses - the bus is still better than the tube any day. May I recommend a book to you bus lovers - "The Maintenance of Headway" by Magnus Mills. It is an absurd novel about bus timetables.
Mrs Fashion - good to have you back. I've been rather lax on the blogging front myself recently.
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